Aidnography

Hi all,  I hope everybody is still OK. I think this week's review is nicely balanced between watching Netflix ' 'Sergio', food for thought on a (post-) Coronavirus world, growing up in Dadaab, social movements in Hong Kong & anthropological research on the ICRC. Enjoy!   My quotes of the week We had fun like kids anywhere do. Celebrities visited Dadaab, although we only heard about it on the radio. We felt the pity visitors felt for us, and hated it. To the world, Dadaab was a garden where people, mostly white, came to plant trees and watch crowds of us squash each other in line for porridge. My father was the muezzin at the mosque, and every morning I woke up to his call to prayer. My mother promised she would kill me with her own two hands if my photo ever appeared on the pamphlets passed around the refugee camp to remind us of our own destitution. (Chasing the Mirage, from Nairobi to New York City) We are making a mistake by continuing to explore war in terms

You are probably too immersed in debates around the aid industry when you notice during the end credits that Jordan and Thailand, two favorite R’n’R places of the industry and its aid workers, replaced Iraq and East Timor, the central stages for Netflix ’ new Sergio movie. I am generally a big fan of using different artistic formats to communicate ‘development’, including humanitarian work and international politics, and after watching the trailer I was prepared to cut the movie some slack in terms of what to expect in terms of critical, even educational value. With that and my first book review I wrote on the blog in 2010 on Samantha Power ’ s De Mello biography in mind I was still a bit disappointed with Sergio which frames his story almost completely around the romantic relationship Sergio De Mello (played by Wagner Moura) develops with his young colleague Carolina Larriera (played by Ana De Armas). Ever since the notorious book Emergency Sex came out and in today’s world of

Hi all, I hope you are well & enjoyed some form of Easter-related break! This week's review features a lot of great long-reads on the history of pandemics, Canadian steel plants, World Vision & Renee Bach...perfect for exploring at home ;)! The COVID-19 section does not try to 'catch up'-so it is relatively short and selective. And there is poetry, wins against algorithmic intransparence, reflections on 'naked' research & more! Enjoy! My quotes of the week Bach’s two sisters live in California—one is a nanny, the other a doctor—and she was considering moving there. “I want to be in a place where I could live a life of service again,” she said. “I genuinely enjoy helping people. And I feel like an idiot saying that, because everyone is, like, ‘You just killed a bunch of people.’ I would love to live in a really low-income, diverse community—like immersion. Just to move into a Section 8 housing community, and not be completely ostracized, is an art.”

Hi all,  Another week with a special COVID-19 section-focusing on globally diverse, interesting, alternative media & communication projects; plus non-COVID reading suggestions & more! P.S.: I will take a short Easter break next week and should be back the following week   Stay healthy!   My quotes of the week As women we have been denied the right to housing. Even when we build our own houses they are destroyed. Housing is not possible without land and we are denied the right to land. We have been oppressed by the Kings in our rural areas. You are denied access to land if you are a single mother. We have moved to the city and now we are still facing the same oppression from the eThekwini Municipality. (Organising in the time of COVID19: Abahlali base Mjondolo Womens League speaks out on evictions) “Retailers are calling on the governments of garment-producing countries to provide support for workers, but if you’re going to base your hugely profitable supply chain in cou